tax creditshttp://www.readthehook.com/taxonomy/term/1782/all
enBig chill: Biscuit Run presaged Wintergreen money messhttp://www.readthehook.com/102773/chill-wintergreen-warm-winter-exacerbates-financial-mess
<p>A pile of debt, another warm winter, and the state's unwillingness to accept a dead appraiser's valuation for millions in already-spent conservation tax credits have pushed the company running Wintergreen Resort to the brink of insolvency, as <a href="http://www2.nelsoncountytimes.com/business/2012/feb/05/financial-woes-burden-wintergreen-ar-1666592/">reported</a> Monday morning in the <em>Nelson County Times</em>.</p>
<p>Despite&#8211; in a deal reminiscent of Biscuit Run&#8211; scooping up $4.6 million from taxpayers four years ago, Wintergreen Partners Inc. has reportedly defaulted on its loan from Bank of America and now implores members to voluntarily lend it $6 million to save the company from bankruptcy.</p>
<p>Another shocker is that Wintergreen joins a host of Virginians in parlaying empty land into cash, part of Virginia's generous conservation tax credit scheme that transfers over $100 million a year from taxpayers to owners of large tracts. The scheme is the centerpiece of <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/101906/flip-flopped-biscuit-run-men-want-20-million-more-taxpayers">ongoing litigation</a> between the state and a team of land speculators who failed to convert an Albemarle tract called Biscuit Run into a housing development.</p>
<p>At Wintergreen, a company subsidiary found an appraiser willing to claim in 2008 that the 1,422-acre peak called Crawford's Knob was worth $11.5 million. Like the owners of Biscuit Run, Wintergreen turned that valuation into several million in cash. Also like Biscuit Run, the state later cried foul.</p>
<p>With the original appraiser having reportedly died, a state-hired appraiser determined that Crawford's Knob was worth just one quarter what Wintergreen and the dead man&#8211; whom Wintergreen would not identify&#8211; were claiming. Alas, Wintergreen already converted the original appraisal into $4.6 million in tax credits, with much of that money paying down debt, according to Wintergreen's own <a href="http://direct.wintergreenresort.com/hostedemail/email.htm?CID=16189355832&amp;ch=2F94A2ADA5A9B42005E5D2D01AA3F668&amp;h=cc46e54622bab6d7bc2206556321aced&amp;ei=T-BZdi6NO">summary of the situation</a>.</p>
<p>A <em>Hook</em> email to the general manager on Wednesday the 30th of January, the date of a revealing email to members, was not returned until February 6, the day the revelations were publicized. The official statement from Wintergreen notes that the company has lost its line of credit, its ability to borrow money. Besides the plea for a $6 million loan, other emergency measures include an accelerated billing of homeowners for their annual dues and chopping $1.5 million from the budget beginning July 1.</p>
<p>Wintergreen notes that it successfully raised $7.5 million in 2009 with the new debt offering to be presented to "qualified investors" around March 1.</p>
<p>What's unknown at this time is the fate of the tax credits. Wealthy individuals paid Wintergreen $3.5 million for the $4.6 million in tax credits to reduce their own tax burden. In 2010, the state forced a Fredericksburg company to <a href="A%20new%20$6%20million%20private%20debt%20offering,%20similar%20to%20the%20successful%20$7.5%20million%20offering%20in%202009,%20to%20be%20presented%20on%20or%20about%20March%201%20to%20qualified%20investors.">refund $7.2 million to taxpayers and investors</a> after allegedly overstating the value of land placed under conservation easement.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p><em>Notes:</em> An early online version of the story used the wrong word: solvency for insolvency. Also, this story was edited and augmented for print publication on the morning of February 7. Original headline: "Big chill: Warmth at Wintergreen exacerbates financial mess"</p>
http://www.readthehook.com/102773/chill-wintergreen-warm-winter-exacerbates-financial-mess#comments_BreakingNewsBusinessFeaturedbiscuit runtax creditswintergreen resortNewsMon, 06 Feb 2012 12:37:27 +0000hawes102773 at http://www.readthehook.com'Debt of gratitude': Kaine thanks Biscuit Run sellers, not taxpayershttp://www.readthehook.com/69050/debt-gratitude-kaine-thanks-biscuit-run-sellers-not-taxpayers
<!&#8211; This will not be inserted &#8211;><!&#8211; This will not be inserted &#8211;><div class="captionLeftLandscape"><a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/news-biscuit-craig-sm.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-25834" src="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/news-biscuit-craig-sm-325x243.jpg" alt="news-biscuit-craig-sm" title="news-biscuit-craig-sm" height="243" border="0" width="325" /></a><strong>Biscuit run investors Hunter Craig and DMB violinist Boyd Tinsley joined Governor Tim Kaine on January 8 at the new Monticello Visitor's Center to celebrate the state's purchase of the 1,200-acre property.</strong> <small>PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART </small></div>
<p>In an event attended by dozens of movers and shakers including Dave Matthews Band violinist Boyd Tinsley, Governor Tim Kaine visited Monticello Friday, January 8, to announce his administration's success in securing more than 425,000 acres of Virginia land for conservation, particularly lavishing praise upon the previous owners of 1,200-acre Charlottesville-area residential development-turning-state park Biscuit Run.</p>
<p class="whitespace">Kaine thanked numerous agencies for helping the state purchase the property in southern Albemarle County for what he called the "bargain scenario" of $9.8 million on December 31.&nbsp;Still unclear, however, is the appraised value of the land, for which Biscuit Run owners will be entitled to a 40 percent tax credit, an additional&#8211;- but unrevealed&#8211;- cost to taxpayers.</p>
<p class="whitespace">"We owe a debt of gratitude," Kaine said of the Biscuit Run deal, "and it starts with the landowners."</p>
<p class="whitespace">Biscuit Run was purchased&nbsp;in 2005&nbsp;by Forest Lodge LLC, a consortium headed by developer Hunter Craig and including members of the Dave Matthews Band, for a reported $46.2 million. It was planned as the site of some 3,100 homes, but with the economy tanking&#8211;- and an estimated carrying cost of more than $300,000 per month&#8211;- Forest Lodge seemed to be running out of money back in November when Bluefield-based First Community Bank told shareholders a $34 million loan was in&nbsp; <a href="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2009/12/31/state-buys-biscuit-run-for-park/">"early stage delinquency.</a>" Less than two months later, with the state's purchase of the property, it wasn't clear how&#8211;- or if&#8211;-the bank would be repaid, nor was it clear what the property is now actually worth.</p>
<p class="whitespace">Developer Richard Spurzem says he believes the actual current value of Biscuit Run is closer to $20 million&#8211; less than half the speculators' purchase price&#8211;- and he points out that while $9.8 million is indeed a bargain price, it's not the only money citizens will end up paying out. There could be $14 million in tax credits, if the property is appraised at its most recent sales price of $46 million. And there are still the millions of dollars of improvements needed to convert a farm into a state park, including roads and other infrastructure.</p>
<p class="whitespace">Spurzem says he believes Biscuit Run as a development was doomed at least in part by developers' decision to rezone the property to allow higher density.&nbsp;That, he says, allowed the county to extract proffers&#8211;- including schools and roads&#8211;- "to the point that it made the property not viable." He says a similar situation has unfolded on a smaller scale with a 244-acre farm in Gordonsville he sold to a Fredericksburg developer in 2007 for $5.6 million.</p>
<p class="whitespace">"I think it's worth about half that now," he explains, adding that, like Albemarle, Orange County also extracted millions of dollars in proffers that make it impossible for the new owners&#8211;- the Silver Companies&#8211;- to move forward.</p>
<p class="whitespace">Jud Honaker, president of Silver Companies' commercial division, says that while the Gordonsville property is a residential development that he does not oversee, a tax credit "nightmare" began when Silver put 430 acres along the Rappahannock River into conservation. Three years later, says Honaker, the state suddenly revoked the tax credits claiming the appraisal wasn't valid, leaving Silver Companies to deal with hundreds of individuals who'd purchased the credits and who now owed back taxes.</p>
<p class="whitespace">"It's cost us two million dollars and taken three years," says Honaker."You're trying to do the right thing, and that's the way you get treated? We'll never put land in conservation again."</p>
<p class="whitespace">Former Biscuit Run owner Hunter Craig has not returned a reporter's calls and&nbsp;did not answer press questions at today's event. Spurzem, however, says the decision to put Biscuit Run into conservation likely came after owners considered all options. While he doesn't believe any of Biscuit Run's investors "came out whole," he says the deal with the state likely staunched a hemorrhage of investors' money and helped them recoup some if not all of their investment.</p>
<p class="whitespace">Asked the appraised value of Biscuit Run, which would determine the value of the tax credits, Kaine demurred, mentioning the 2005 purchase price and insisting that for tax credit purposes, there is currently no appraised value for Biscuit Run. "There are no guarantees" for the former owners, the governor said, noting that the tax credit question will be worked out privately in coming months.</p>
<p class="whitespace">Earlier, Kaine spoke proudly of his and his staff's efforts to beat a goal set in 2005 of 400,000 additional acres in conservation by the end of his term. A map highlighted more than 20 such conservation acquisitions including several state parks and additional state forests.</p>
<p class="whitespace">
<!&#8211; This will not be inserted &#8211;><!&#8211; This will not be inserted &#8211;></p>
<div class="captionLeftLandscape"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-25846" src="http://www.readthehook.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/news-biscuit-boyd-325x243.jpg" alt="news-biscuit-boyd" title="news-biscuit-boyd" height="243" border="0" width="325" /><strong>Boyd Tinsley answers reporters questions about his involvement in Biscuit Run and its sale to the Commonwealth of Virginia for use as a state park.</strong> <small>PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART </small></div>
<p>Tinsley, whose presence at the event was the first confirmation that any Dave Matthews Band members held a stake in Biscuit Run, praised Kaine for his focus on conservation during his term as governor, which ends this month.</p>
<p class="whitespace">"Tim," said Tinsley, who referred repeatedly to his personal friendship with the Governor, "has always been concerned and passionate about quality of life for Virginians in general." Claiming he'd only known for three weeks about the possibility of Biscuit Run becoming a state park, Tinsley says he was "delighted" when he heard of the plan.</p>
<p class="whitespace">"It was a very pleasant surprise," he said. "Any loss we've taken pales in comparison to the contribution we've made to the community.</p>
<p class="whitespace">While Kaine was lavish with his praise of landholders' generosity, he was less specific in his praise of taxpayers, who are subsidizing the new park and who&#8211;- because of privacy laws&#8211;- will never be entitled to see the appraisals and consequently the benefits of the Biscuit Run transaction to the land speculators.</p>
<p class="whitespace">"The preservation of open space," Kaine said, "is for the public good."</p>
<p class="whitespace">&#8211;<em>Correction: Orange County, not Fluvanna, extracted proffers for the development Richard Spurzem sold in 2007.</em></p>
http://www.readthehook.com/69050/debt-gratitude-kaine-thanks-biscuit-run-sellers-not-taxpayers#comments_BreakingNewsBusinessFeaturedGovt/PoliticsGrowthbiscuit runBoyd TinsleyHunter Craigtax creditsSat, 09 Jan 2010 03:21:26 +0000courteney69050 at http://www.readthehook.com